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Bodybuilding Overtraining Symptoms

Sep 2, 2011 | By Joshua Bailey
Bodybuilding Overtraining Symptoms
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The ultimate goal of bodybuilding is to pack on additional muscle mass through weight training. This type of training requires a lot of volume with many repetitions of each exercise utilized, with many groups of repetitions, or sets, to be performed. While high volume is critical to muscle growth, a lack of rest between workouts can lead to overtraining. Overtraining is a condition where your body is no longer able to hold up to the demands of training because you have not given yourself enough time to recover. This results in several main symptoms -- each of which limits muscular growth.

Fatigue

Your body needs rest, and if proper rest is not given, your body will not grow muscle or improve strength. This leads to a feeling of fatigue or weakness during training sessions and one of the earliest symptoms of overtraining. This lack of strength may be mistaken for a plateau in training that occurs when your body has adapted to your workouts and they have lost their effectiveness. Busting a plateau requires you to alter your approach to training. It may be difficult to determine if the workout is the problem or you're training too hard. Give yourself three to seven days of rest and then return to the weight room. If your strength during your return workout is significantly greater than your previous workout and your fatigue has subsided, these are clear indications that you were overtraining.

Sickness

Your body will expend a lot of energy to keep up with the workouts and build muscle. This requires a large amount of protein. The amino acids in protein are also responsible for creatine antibodies that fight off illnesses. Your body will not be able to adequately supply protein to perform both of these tasks if you are constantly training and do not have enough rest between workouts. Your immune system will be compromised, and you will likely get sick. Being sick cuts into your training time and shifts your body into preservation mode. This means muscle growth will be sacrificed for antibody production. If you get sick while training and haven't been exposed to anyone with an illness, you should consider overtraining as a possible cause.

Unexplained Weight Shift

Dramatic weight changes or feelings of weight changes may signal overtraining. Your body secretes cortisol in response to training. Cortisol is responsible for the breakdown of fats and muscle for energy. Normally, the secretion of cortisol is lower relative to anabolic, muscle-building hormones that are secreted by your body from training. However, if your training duration is too long or you haven't fully recovered between workouts, your body will increase cortisol production to compensate, according to research done at the Institute of Sports and Preventive Medicine, University of Saarland, Saarbrücken, Germany and published in the journal "Sports Medicine." This can cause you to lose weight rapidly, leaving you feeling weak. Your body may also begin to slow its overall metabolism, resulting in rapid weight gain and a feeling of lethargy. Individual weight responses vary, but major weight shifts are indicative of overtraining.

Pain from Injury

Injury can occur at any point during the bodybuilding training program; however, when in an overtrained state, your chances of getting injured increase dramatically. Muscles and bones are subjected to repeated micro-trauma from exercise bout to exercise bout. The recovery period allows these structures to adapt and become stronger; however, when the recovery period is too short, these structures don't have ample time to rebuild, and they become prone to injury. The initial symptoms are unexplained soreness or pain in the joints and muscles that weren't worked during your routine. Prolonged feelings of pain may signal an underlying condition such as a muscle tear or stress fracture. These types of injuries often require several weeks to heal fully when a few extra days of rest and recovery would have sufficed prior to the injury.

References

Article reviewed by Leah Ann Crussell Last updated on: Sep 2, 2011

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